Saturday, August 1, 2009

Hope Estheim and New Final Fantasy XIII information

Hope Estheim

Hope was one of the banished few (forced to be sent to Pulse) that was sent to Edge. In the battle against the Sanctum’s soldiers, he lost his mother and his spirit was crushed. Thus, he directs all his sadness and anger towards the one who drew his mother into fighting, Snow. He originally lived a very peaceful life within Cocoon. However, he lost his mother at Edge and thus harbors a strong hatred towards Snow, who was the one responsible for drawing his mother into the fight as well to lose her life. Even though he pays attention towards etiquette in his speech but there are times where he lets his emotions get the better of him. Hope’s mother (as seen in the E3 trailer before hand) was inspired by Snow’s speech and thus chose to take arms. she entrusted her hope to Hope and fought together with Snow, then died.

Hope is actually the youngest of the 5 because he is only 14 years old, so he still has a few childish behaviors in him as well as a very fragile heart. His mother died protecting him whilst joining snow’s resistance group. Hope believes that because of Snow’s call to join the resistance that his mother lost her life and thus ventures along with Lightning and Co. bearing a very strong grudge against Snow. How Hope plans to turn this grudge into determination is definitely something to look out for. Also, the theme of ‘internal conflict helps to demonstrate the epicness of the Final fantasy XIII, so please look forward to more.

In combat, Hope uses his boomerangs and specializes in ranged combat. The way in which he throws his boomerang is very different to how it is done in reality as it is relies on the concept of limit training which exists in the future. Even so, he is still a normal teenager and thus there will be moments where he might flee from combat. So, under everyone’s help, please help Hope develop into a brave young man. Also we will be revealing more party members in the future.

Hope’s weapons are dual boomerangs, And they aren’t just ordinary boomerangs. If you lock onto an enemy when throwing the boomerang, you can deal chain damage on a single target, a specially designed futuristic weapon. In gameplay, it is easy to tell that Hope has never fought before and that he is a very inexperienced fighter as compared to his more senior counterparts. Also, because Vanille and Hope are suited for range combat, it is best to maintain a certain distance against the opponents before attacking again.

Vanille's Weapon/Combat

Vanille’s weapon is a reminisecne of a deer’s antlers which can be folded and attached to her waist. The ‘antlers’ will fire out 4 metal wires, each wire having a needle at the end to draw the enemy closer to deal damage.

In the past, we have seen how fire type and ice type magics are combat based magic. But now two new magic set, The Faith magic as well as Support Magic will make an appearance. The trust/faith spell set has made its appearance 3 ties in past FF series but during those times, Mp points were used. Now with thee new gameplay system, Trust Spells can be used efficiently but as to whether there will a restriction will be anyone’s guess.

The L'cie:

All L’ice are given a focus by the Fal’ice. If the focus is not completed or is unsuccessful after a period of time, the L’ice’s heart will be sealed in despair and they will forever be stuck in the form of monsters, a Cie Corpse. These Cie Corpses have no emotions, no goals or intelligence, only trapped by this prolonged despair brought about from this cruel fate. There are many special characteristics of a Cie Corpse, a few being that its body is totally crystallized as well as the claws on their huge hands. From the pulsating red light from their chest, there is a hint of life, giving the indication that this right be the life source of the Cie Corpses.

In previously released footage showing the scene of the Crystallized lake deep within Cocoon, Lightning and co had come face to face with a Cie Corpse. However, this Cie corpse is different from the ones that are surrounding Hope and Vanille. All you can see of Cie Corpse are a few facial features that show that it was once human before. Li'Cie who are unable to complete their Focuses will turn into crystallized monster, a Corpse a creature whose heart is sealed by endless despair. This is far more torturous and more painful than death. The reason why we chose to use the word Cie is because the people of Cocoon know about the existence of such creatures, which would explain why they have a great fear towards the Pulse L’Cie.